Republican Party Makes No Abortion Exception For Rape, Incest

No changes despite Akin controversy.

Image by Christian Gooden / AP

TAMPA, Florida — The Republican Party’s platform will include language calling for a constitutional amendment against abortion, leaving out any mention of exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

The draft platform as first obtained by CNN:

Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.

Amid a very brief debate in which several largely technical amendments were considered, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, the chairman of the platform committee, closed discussion on the abortion section after no further amendments were offered.

“I appreciate the good work that that committee did — in past platforms that has been hours of discussion — and I applaud the committee’s work in affirming our respect for human life,” he said, adding, “Well done.”

Exceptions in the case of rape came to the forefront on Sunday after Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s controversial statements on “legitimate rape” not leading to pregnancy. Akin apologized for those statements after they were widely condemned by Democrats and Republicans. Republican party elders have called on Akin to drop out of his race for the Senate.

The platform language is the same as 2004 and 2008, according to an RNC official. The official added that there were no amendments submitted on the rape and incest exceptions.

“We’re not touching it,” the official added. “We’re literally saying this is 100% pro-life language. We’re going to leave the granular details to the states.”

The language came out of the Restoring Constitutional Government subcommittee. The platform committee will take up the report of the Health, Education and Crime subcommittee, but nothing specific to abortion is expected to come up.

UPDATE: The full plank:

Faithful to the self-evident truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life, and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion, or fund organizations that would perform or advocate it, and will not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage.

We support the appointment of judges who support traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life. We oppose the nonconsensual withholding or withdrawal of care or treatment, including food and water, from people with disabilities, including newborns as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose active and passive euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Republican leadership has led the effort to prohibit the barbaric practice of partial birth abortion, and permitted states to extend health care coverage to children before birth. We urge Congress to strengthen the Born Alive Infant Protection Act by exacting appropriate civil and criminal penalties to health care providers who fail to provide treatment and care to an infant who survives an abortion, including early induction delivery, where the death of the infant is intended. We call for legislation to ban sex selective abortions, gender discrimination in its most lethal form, and to protect from abortion unborn children who are capable of feeling pain, and we applaud U.S. House Republicans for leading the effort to protect the lives of pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia. We call for revision of Federal Law 42 USC 289.92 to bar the use of body parts from aborted fetuses for research. We support and applaud adult stem cell research to develop life saving therapies, and we oppose the killing of embryos for their stem cells. We oppose Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

We also salute the many states that have passed laws for informed consent, mandatory waiting periods prior to an abortion, and health protective clinic regulation. We seek to protect young girls from exploitation through a parental consent requirement, and we affirm our moral obligation to assist rather than penalize women challenged by an unplanned pregnancy. We provide them with counseling and adoption alternatives and empower them to choose life, and we take comfort in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed a public and legislative initiative.